Astray by Emma Donoghue

First let me start off by saying thank you to all my readers who have stuck with me the last few weeks. My life has been crazy busy lately. Most importantly I started a new job and have been crazy busy with getting antiquated with the new schedule and commute the last few weeks. But the good news is I'm back and have tons of reviews to post!

Now on to the review of Astray by Emma Donoghue.

I was looking for something different the day I picked this book up. Ironically when I picked it up and read the synopsis I thought it was extremely similar to one of my new favorite's Trains & Lovers by Alexander McCall Smith. I fell in love with McCall Smith's book instantly and read it in one night, so surely with a very similar description of adventure and finding ones self in a hodgepodge of characters I thought this book would be a good comparison.

I started off reading this thinking that each chapter was an introduction to the character and their stories. What I soon realized was that each chapter was their story. Astray is a collection of short stories that Donoghue did a wonderful job of portraying in these historical fiction pieces.

I don't like reading collections of short stories for numerous reasons, but mostly because I always feel as though the stories are left hanging. Ironically I write short stories myself, but they usually turn into full fledged novel manuscripts down the road. So when I realized that this book was short stories I contemplated on the idea of giving up and walking away out of frustration. But I'm glad I held strong and finished this collection of master pieces.

Donoghue does a great job of getting the reader to understand the characters while leaving a slight sense of mystery to the story. Each story ends with information about the characters development and where Donoghue found her inspiration. Out of the collection my favorites where Daddy's Girl and Vanitas. I won't give away much but the thought provoking questions that are asked in the mind of the reader leave to question the idea of what more in history do we not know or understand?

Our lives today are very similar in many of these stories, but the question I wonder is how far have we truly come from understanding the human mind and the beliefs we all hold true to our hearts. I recommend this read if you are looking for something a little different and philosophical to a sort.